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Newsweek: Obama In Top 10 of Presidents Since Teddy Roosevelt
Hot Air ^ | September 28, 2012 | Matt Vespa

Posted on 09/28/2012 8:11:49 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Obama at No.10 – really?

Despite having failed to stop let alone reverse the rising of the seas, Barack Obama has made Newsweek’s newest ten best presidents list, which gives readers a top ten of the chief executives since 1900. Newsweek, whose list unsurprisingly is dominated by liberal Democrats, gave this justification for selecting Obama in a caption in a photo slide:

"Picking a sitting president in a tally of the best is tricky – history hasn’t had time to put things in a more sober context. But the historic election of America’s first black president cannot be ignored. That a man whose ancestors included a slave could become the leader of a nation founded to some extent in slavery is as much an achievement for the country as it is a marker for Obama himself. Whether Obama stays or goes, his standing, as a fundamentally groundbreaking president will remain."

So, Obama deserves to be on the list simply because he’s black?! Has affirmative action percolated into historical analysis? After all, such an honorable mention needs “a more sober context” with the passage of time to make an accurate and honest assessment. Historians often talk about “what could have been” if a former head of state had lived. You see this a lot with JFK, who is also on the list, and his 1000 daylong administration.

Of course, JFK steered the world away from nuclear disaster in October of 1962, proposed an across the board tax cut, and pushed our scientific community to engineer a mission to the moon. By contrast, Barack Obama’s increased the national debt by $5 trillion, kept unemployment above 8 percent for over 40 consecutive months, and presided over the demise of the U.S. space shuttle program.

Newsweek staffers are making the rounds to promote the list. Contributing editor Sir Harold Evans — he’s also the husband for Newsweek’s editor Tina Brown – appeared on yesterday’s Jansing & Co. program on MSNBC, where he said that the historians who formulated the list were looking for “active and effective” presidents who “enhanced” the ideal of what it is to be American.

Not surprisingly, government-increasing liberal Democrats like FDR and LBJ, as well as slightly more moderate big government Democrats like Truman and Clinton dominate the list.

Asked about why the list is predominantly Democratic in nature, Evans insisted that the Republicans in the 20th century were by and large uninspiring if not corrupt. In the process, he trashed free-market conservative Calvin Coolidge — who presided over an economic boom, low unemployment, and the reduction of the national debt — as unimaginative.

If by lacking imagination, Evans means a mind that dreamed up new bureaucracies and larger federal government, he’s correct. But the results speak for themselves, even if they don’t excite historians.

Originally posted on Newsbusters.


TOPICS: Books/Literature; Politics
KEYWORDS: newsweak
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Who was Mr. Obama's ancestor who was a slave? Can anyone tell me?
1 posted on 09/28/2012 8:11:52 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Just say NO to drugs.


2 posted on 09/28/2012 8:12:53 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Vote early and vote often.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Sidebar: Chicago Cubs listed as BEST TEAM EVER!!!


3 posted on 09/28/2012 8:14:33 PM PDT by Hegewisch Dupa (Vote for Goode, end up with evil, pat self on back repeatedly)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Newsweek...left-wing porn.


4 posted on 09/28/2012 8:15:43 PM PDT by SoDak (Obama..change you can step in.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

SAY WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?


5 posted on 09/28/2012 8:15:46 PM PDT by Publius Maximus (It was a nice Republic, while it lasted.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Jesus Christ. I literally face-palmed when I read this. How in hell....never mind.


6 posted on 09/28/2012 8:16:35 PM PDT by toddausauras (FUBO x 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

There have been, unless I’m horribly wrong, eighteen presidents since Teddy. So if Barry’s ten out of eighteen, that puts him on the lower side of the middle.


7 posted on 09/28/2012 8:18:22 PM PDT by RichInOC (Palin 2012: The Perfect Storm.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

{{{{{{{{ ~*~ PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA ~*~ }}}}}

......is only at #10??1?!/!?!?!?!?!?!

NEW SWEEK IS EVUL REPULBICAN GARBIGE!!!!! BOYCOT!!11111111!!

8 posted on 09/28/2012 8:20:56 PM PDT by Lonely Bull
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Hey, at least they’re being honest about their racism.


9 posted on 09/28/2012 8:21:07 PM PDT by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
If Obama made number 10, then Jimmy Carter is number 9. Wait till Rosalynn hears about this!
10 posted on 09/28/2012 8:21:15 PM PDT by Dixie Yooper (Ephesians 6:11)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The average American is so uninformed that he couldn’t name ten presidents from scratch; so naturally Obama would be on the list, maybe higher than 10. The American people just don’t get it.


11 posted on 09/28/2012 8:21:15 PM PDT by Theodore R. ( Who among us has not erred? Akin's the One!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Hey! So far he has been the second best President of the whole century!


12 posted on 09/28/2012 8:23:20 PM PDT by MacMattico
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To: 2ndDivisionVet; All
  1. FDR
  2. Teddy Rooseveldt
  3. LBJ
  4. Woodrow Wilson
  5. Truman
  6. JFK
  7. Ike
  8. Clinton
  9. Reagan
  10. Obama

13 posted on 09/28/2012 8:23:46 PM PDT by EveningStar
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To: EveningStar

10 out of 18 isn’t that hot. It’s a fail, really.


14 posted on 09/28/2012 8:27:27 PM PDT by married21 (As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Obama deserves to be on the list simply because he’s black?!

...and he was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize because of what he MIGHT accomplish...someday....maybe......

I don't know which one is more lame.....

15 posted on 09/28/2012 8:27:59 PM PDT by massmike (The choice is clear in November: Romney or Caligula!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Newsweek: now a 16-page pamphlet found only in dentist’s offices.


16 posted on 09/28/2012 8:28:17 PM PDT by Steely Tom (If the Constitution can be a living document, I guess a corporation can be a person.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Looks Reagan barely beat out Obama according to these clowns. This is just one pathetic, aburb joke.


17 posted on 09/28/2012 8:28:24 PM PDT by Parley Baer
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To: Parley Baer

Make that “absurd”.


18 posted on 09/28/2012 8:30:00 PM PDT by Parley Baer
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
the historic election of the first black president...

Or the first 1/2 black (or 1/2 white) president. Add this to the list of affirmative action, utterly unearned and undeserved "distinctions" Zero has been given, for absolutely no other reason than that he LOOKS black (of course, he is actually a mulatto Marxist/Alinskyite).

Let's not forget the Nobel prize he was given for... Well, for not being George W. Bush, I guess.

19 posted on 09/28/2012 8:32:40 PM PDT by Sicon ("All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." - G. Orwell)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Again, Newsweek publishes an article that proves it is biased and irrelevant.


20 posted on 09/28/2012 8:42:55 PM PDT by vetvetdoug
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